QUETTA, PAKISTAN (AFP) – Four policemen were killed yesterday in a gunbattle with militants in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, police said, hours after four people died in a bomb blast in the region’s capital.
Militants identified by police as being from the Pakistan Taleban opened fire on a pre-dawn patrol in Kuchlak, officials said, and were still on the run.
“Militants opened fire on a police team from a compound killing four policemen,” senior local police official Muhammad Zohaib told AFP.
“One terrorist was also killed during the exchange of fire, while the remainder escaped.”
Counter-terrorism department official Aitzaz Goraya said the militants were from Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan, which is separate from Afghanistan’s Taleban but shares a similar ideology.
